Re-mold of the script, making it ours

We held a group meeting at Myles and Gus's house regarding ideas of a re-write. Mark was unable to make the same time as Elspeth and myself, so he went earlier and discussed some of his ideas with Myles and Gus. Elspeth and myself arrived about 15 mins before he left. We were informed that they were very keen on the idea of us showing the protagonist losing his mind in the form on an interview. Many of our ideas run very close to Luke's actual original script, as we where looking to show 'a day in the life' of this character with him losing his mind. However, our main idea was based on him trying to get a job interview.

I suggested that we have an extra character that he would bump into at the beginning, which he had not seen for a long time. This extra character could be with him through the day, attending all of the interviews with him. The film could have been shot from his their perspective throughout the film with this extra character prompting him to say certain things. The final image of this film would be the first perspective of an outsider who sees what appears to be this main character on a park bench talking to himself. We could then have cut to back to seeing them both talking on the bench on old times, and the days events. I thought that this was how it could have visually looked from one perspective...

However the general group feeling was that this would be too predictable. So we went back to the drawing board...then it hit me. We could put a twist on the interview with it being him getting interview by the police about a series of events. The group liked this idea, Myles thought of a good introduction, Starting from the cell and heading for the interview room. Initially I thought that this interview could be shot from our protagonists perspective with him trying to explain his events which lead to his arrest. We could then have shown these two police characters leave the room and showed them discussing how the character they had just interviewed made no sense. The final shot could have been one from a CCTV camera looking in showing the character to be mad. In affect, this film would have been in two, an initially coherent interview where our main character justifies everything rationally, which is from his perspective. Finally we would have jumped into a rational stance of the police...highlighting that nothing the insane character was saying made any sense. Gus and Myles again ruled this out...as they used a CCTV in their last film and didn't want to use the same idea.

Group Decision: Picking the Script

After reading trough all of the classes scripts there were a few that really stuck out. Our group organized a meeting where we would discuss the scripts that we thought contained good potential. As a group we finally narrowed the potential scripts that we could use down to three. These were three very different scripts that provided us with three very different films. Here are the three scripts that tickled our fancy...

1. The Industry- Liz Scott’s script is a mockumentary, which is set on a film set. One problem with this option is the comedy element. Our group where very split about this, as Gus and Mark thought that this would be a style and look that we would be able to achieve. I on the other hand felt very uneasy in taking on a documentary, especially one that relied so heavily on humor, for if we failed with the humour elements, the film would be a disaster.
2. A Justified Presumption- Lyndon Mcgukian’s script is about a friendship that is formed between a boy and an old man. The old man has a bad reputation when paedophilia is implied. The old men ends up dead, but was this murder? Or was he a miss-conceived individual that was simply isolated to an outcast? This strongest element to this story is also its weakest, the ambiguity. It would also be difficult to find the older actor as our provisional actors option are predominantly younger.
3. The final option is Luke Phillips story of a young man suffering from schizophrenia called Treatment. This is probably the strongest option, as the story seems to be the least worked, but also contains a strong theme that could lead us into many options. All of our group are also film students, which means that we are very interested in the aesthetic of the film. Schizophrenia is certainly a topic where we could do a lot visually to amplify the protagonist’s state of mind.

After much discussion we ruled out the Mockumentary because I felt very uneasy on making a comedy. This left just Lyndon's and Luke's, one being very deep and emotional with the other being about mental health. We decided that out of these two options that Luke's had the best potential in terms of us making it our own, especially visually. It contained a topic that gave us great possibilities of re-working the script. It was final, as a group we decided to commit to The Treatment. Now onto the re-write and making it ours.

The Group

This film is the first chance that we have at selecting our own group. This is something that I am excited at as I encountered some problems in our first film before Christmas in that many members of our group were not as committed as others. I personally felt that the two people involved in our group really, was Abi and myself. Yasmin played a strong part also, but got a little distracted on the actual filming weekend by other members of the group.

I had actually talked with other members of our group and organized our filming group with them last November. I wanted to be in a group with Miles and Gus as well as Elspeth. I also wanted Abi to be in our group, although all the other members in my group wanted somebody called Mark. I had not really had an opportunity to work with Mark before this group, but everybody else seemed to be good friends with him. Mark also had a lot of experience in the actual practical side of filming as he was heavily involved with Liquid soaps in both years. He had experience in operating camera's, as well as setting up lighting. Abi had found another group, which meant that our group was decided. This group was extremely different when compared to the first one. It excited me that everybody in this film seemed as committed to the film as me. It also helped that we were given the choice of picking from all the other courses scripts, opposed to being given one that we had to rework.

Here are the members of our group...

Lord Myles

Gus

Elspeth

Mark

And Myself...

Script-My first own nurtured idea

My Script.

Script writing for me seemed like one of the most boring and non important activity within

the whole film making process when I first signed up for the 'Planning and Making a film' module at Bath Spa. However, over the duration of this course, it has really hi

t home how fundamental scriptwriting is. For script writing fundamentally concerns the ability telling a story. It is certainly not one of my strongest areas, as I am familiar with studying directors and filmmakers, considering their themes and intentions hidden within their films. But to completely create an idea from the beginnings, and to then transform it onto paper is something I don't find easy. Although since this module begun, I have had two opportunities to submit scripts. This current script I am finding much easier than the first. One element that has played a significant influence in this current script for me is the fact we have just finished our first film. On the one hand, it has helped me produce a simple concept that would be very practical and easy from a production point of view as the filming locations are fundamentally set in just one room. Although, this film might have been restricted to some degree by this, as I was ruling out anything that I thought would have been difficult to shoot. To some extent this could be seen to have restricted my creativity. Although in terms of filming, it could be hard to get marked well, as there is little to do in the pre-production phase.

1st Draft

My first draft was ok for my first script writing attempt, however there were some weaknesses. For one, the script struggled in that it was not correctly written, littered with mistakes where it did not abide to the strict script formatting. I receive feedback from Mike (our lecturer), and also from some members of our class. My fellow student stated that they liked the script and that they thought it had good potential. They said that it reminded them of Groundhog day. Which is ironic as this was not going though my mind when I came up with the concept. Mike suggested that the script was lacking in terms of a good ending, he also suggested that the main character Leo could try and use this strange cycle to his advantage. With this in mind, I went back to the drawing board and re-worked my idea.

Final script

In this re-write I tried to think of something that could be used in the cycle process. Something that would it in, which leon could take advantage of. When sitting in the lecture it occurred to me that there was a very simple concept which could fit with this idea, Leon's incomplete Homework. Although this idea would fit with the morning sequence, I wanted to keep the initial shock and panic that Leon would have felt before he realized he could use it to his advantage. I was struggling with the repetitive cycle, as I didn't want the script to seem boring and repetitive. In terms of the ending, Leon needed to break the cycle. However, I didn't want him to get everything his own way as he after all neglected his college work. I thought it would be good to finish on his realization that all of the work and effort he had put into his homework in the morning, was wasted. I was contemplating him getting his homework done and returned to the point when he breaks the cycle and begins to get ready for school. I thought that it would have been pretty funny if his dog came up and ate his finished work. This would have been ironic as it is a typical excuse for many students. I didn't implement this in the story as I did not have enough time because I thought of it just a day before the final script hand in. Generally, I am really impressed with my first script attempt. I am grateful for the constructive feedback that my peers and lecturer have given me. I am hoping to film this script in the summer as a short film. I am a little disappointed that nobody actually decided to use the script for the second film on the course, however, I am a little relieved that nobody has attempted to film it as it is something that I want to film in the near future.